[Soulakala]

Back in the 80s. That was our favorite methods. Banana weight and mooching rig with an anchovies hooked through the snout on each hook spread a few inches apart. Find fish, let out a few pulls and drift. Wacko!!!!

Can you imagine what you might get now from the swarm out on the water as you make them move because you're mooching.

 

[DogZilla15]

I was on a guide boat one day for Springers. I did lose one but at the end of the day the guide said I owe you a trip because you didn’t get a fish. Told him I got what I paid for, a day on the water. You owe me nothing. It’s about fishing, not catching. A neighbor once asked me about a guide that guaranteed fish. Told him any guide who does is a fool. Your money buys a seat on the boat, nothing more.

 

[Kirkll]

Can you imagine what you might get now from the swarm out on the water as you make them move because you're mooching.

Most of the mooching we did was outside in the ocean. I remember quite a few days in 6-8’ swells limiting the boat with my buddy while everyone else was calling seals, or for their brother Ralph.

 

[Kirkll]

Btw…. If anyone snags a nice big hoop net with a pool cue in the end of the handle out around buoy 12, I’d sure love to have that back. I had just put a new custom bag on it. Kirk

Btw… when I tested it. It floated fine. But…. I had a tough time getting close to it when it went overboard in rough water, and as the handle filled with water, she went down…. Next one I buy I’m going to fill with foam.

 

[Fiskiller]

Pulled out the banana weights couple days ago to bring them down when I come back on Friday .Old School is still the best.stuff plus I have a few 00 flashers.

 

[pstutheit]

Pulled out the banana weights couple days ago to bring them down when I come back on Friday .Old School is still the best.stuff plus I have a few 00 flashers.

When I fish a 5 rod spread in the estuary, I often put a banana weight (w/out flasher) and a herring or old school spinner straight out the stern. They still work just fine.

 

[Kirkll]

Pulled out the banana weights couple days ago to bring them down when I come back on Friday .Old School is still the best.stuff plus I have a few 00 flashers.

A good drift for that would be just below the bridge on the washington side right at the start of the ebb tide, only thing i would change is using 16 ounce cannon balls with a 12'' dropper and bounce the bottom with fresh anchovies or herring. Those chinook had their noses in the mud a week ago.

 

[Ibexfishing]

Real report from today
3 rods first light till 3:30
Stopped keeping track of fish caught after #20
Boated well over 15 fish
Kept 3 hatchery coho
Let go a ton of “wild” URB chinook and wild coho
Anchovies were the ticket , but one spinner put on a show for awhile

 

[HntnFsh]

You have been having fun!

 

[HntnFsh]

Guides are paid for knowledge; where, what and how to get fish for their customers. It's more of a personable fish trip. I've heard it said multiple times, we sell trips not fish. Guides vs charters is where the discussion "what to keep/not keep" really gets refined/defined IMO. Charters simply put legal fish on the boat and when a limit is caught they divi it up per customer, whether you caught that fish or not. Somebody will end up tagging what they didn't catch. Numbers are more important than quality for them.
That COULD be said of guides but I have to believe there is more of a choice spoken by the one who catches the fish as far as keep or put back. That is, until that anglers limit is reached then another angler can determine retention. "Party fishing" is legal, some prefer to take home a crap fish vs no fish. We can debate on good vs bad fish all day but at the end of the day those who caught fish take home the fish they want more so on a guide boat than a charter. Even I (as a private boat crewman), ask those fishing (perhaps not catching) if they want the fish we get. There is areal honest education on Tules vs URB quality. Whoever wants it tags it or it goes back. It's not my choice per se' but if they want a stinky Tule, they can have it and I'll do my best to clean/filet/steak it as good as the others.

Great response! This is what its all about!

 

[Soulakala]

Im going to pull a helmet anchovy behind a small diver tomorrow, no flasher, nothing else just to prove or disprove this can catch fish without all that bling we pull now.

 

[pdx_mr2]

Tuesday 19th

It was flat out mayhem today! This will never get old!

For us mostly chinook, we released quite a few to get our fish. All we fished were ProTroll Eplugs

We caught bulk of our fish on incoming tide between SS beach to B10.

 

[The Sailor]

Im going to pull a helmet anchovy behind a small diver tomorrow, no flasher, nothing else just to prove or disprove this can catch fish without all that bling we pull now.

you can't catch them that way or on a #6 blade.....

 

[Little Tank]

We fished two rods on Saturday from 6-2 and didn't experience or see the great fishing that many are reporting. We probably saw 20 nets for 300-400 boats in those eight hours. We only had two takedowns all day, but we got really lucky and they were both hatchery chinook. One a nice low teens URB, the other a high teens very fresh hatch Tule that put up a hell of a fight, what a blast.

We started above the bridge on the WA side about an hour and a half prior to posted high tide. There wasn't a ton going on, but there were enough fish being caught each pass that we kept finding a reason to make another pass. Probably should have got out of there and went searching, but we stuck with that for a few hours, and then the SSW winds kicked up greater than forecast and it got pretty bumpy. We slogged down through the church hole heading for Hammond to try to get out of the wind. There weren't many boats working the church area and we didn't see any nets so we kept on going. We rounded the checker board and there were a ton of boats working the Oregon side from the sawdust pile down, probably trying to get out of the wind as well. So we ran up and started trolling downhill. Between the tide, wind, boat wakes, and rain, it was fairly miserable.

About the time we trolled down past the checker board, Dad's rod finally goes down and he gets a nice low teens URB. We were thrilled at our luck. We ran back to the top and trolled all the way down to buoy 14 without a single bite. When we arrived at buoy 14, it appeared that waves were breaking across nearly the entire bar, and the coast guard had a restriction in place for 40' or less. It was about an hour past low tide at this point, so we were expecting the tide to start flooding and a bite to happen. We worked back and forth, essentially hovering, for a little while and nothing was happening. Finally I turned and started trolling up river with the tide just beginning to push, and Dad's rod goes down again. Since he already had his chinook, I grabbed the rod and got to battle a nice high teens chinook that went on multiple ripping runs and just didn't want to give up.

After boating that fish, we decided we'd had enough of getting beat to death by boat wakes, wind, and rain, so we headed for port. We weren't seeing hardly any coho being caught anyway. In the time we were playing that second fish and then dinking around bleeding the fish, tagging it, cleaning up, etc., a bite was definitely starting to develop and we saw more fish hooked in that time than any other throughout the day.

We were so tired and beat up from the boat wakes and conditions all day, we decided to get up a little earlier, head up and around Astoria on highway 30 (we were staying in Seaside), and fish the lower river closer to home where conditions are much more calm. We've pretty much decided we're about done fishing buoy 10 if the ocean isn't an option - which is pretty ironic considering we're fishing in a 16' boat. The boat wakes in the river are just unbearable. It's a non-stop parade of boats literally all day. I'm sure I'll forget about all that come early August next year and I'll be back. I absolutely love the fishery, but the washing machine is no fun.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a pic of the URB because everything was soaked and conditions were chaotic, but we did get a pic of the fresh Tule. As usual, pictures don't do justice to the true size:

And if you're wondering how it cut/ate, you tell me:

We ate it side by side with URB, and no one even knew any better. The URB was slightly more tasty, but the Tule was delicious too. In the interest of full transparency, the tail pieces were two toned and didn't look appetizing, so those were trimmed off.

The thing that'll probably keep me coming back - other than the fact it's early August and options are limited - is that I know I still haven't truly figured out or mastered this fishery, and it both frustrates and motivates me. We pretty much tried all depths and offerings (except bait), but we just couldn't figure it out. From the sounds of things, we probably should have stayed lower in the river all day. I also regret not going up to 20-24 oz leads and truly spend some time fishing the bottom. That being said, another guide reported fishing 8-12 oz leads at 30-45' on the line counters and hammering the fish during the ebb, so who knows.

We might have to come get revenge after the 25th. If not, we'll probably see y'all next year.

 

[CKthumper]

I don't post much B-10 because I fish much B-10. And don't catch much B-10. I was down there for the last day of the coho rodeo and stayed over to partake in the release fest I've been hearing about.

For those who struggle, don't feel alone. In an eight hour day out there I SAW about as much action as some single individual boats are claiming.

Up with the crowd approaching 10 we were seeing enough action to be confident of getting bit. And a bit frustrated at NOT getting bit. I commented "If we don't get bit I'm going to feel rather inadequate". "Fish on!" It was the strangest "fight" I've ever seen. It ran off about 60' then went dead. No head shakes, no side to side movement. I was convinced we were snagged on a crab rope and hoped we could lift it high enough to salvage some gear off it. Eventually it got to the boat. "It's a fish! A NICE fish!" exclaimed Nephew. Well, it was in nice shape for a Tule, and a coho that size would have been a NICE fish....

A few minutes later we put back a hi fin silver, then a few hours later a couple more hi fin silvers.

Fish checker said most boats were bringing in "One or two".

 

[fisherman_rick]

Tuesday 8/19 3 rods, 0600-1430 2 Chinook, 1 Coho, 2 drive-bys, 1 lost, probably to a sea lion or seal.

Zero to Hero, and Back Again

Sunday's solo trip had me questioning my life choices. Went looking for revenge today. Today's crew of 3 did really great at dawn down at the mouth. Had a couple of drive-bys, then three in the bag by 0800, including a 16-lb Chinook. Beautiful morning.

Lost a fish to what we presume to be a sea lion or seal. A normal initial hookup then line started screaming out at an alarming rate, and it was looking like we were going to get spooled. Luckily, it broke off.

After the bite slowed at 10, we hopscotched our way upriver and never got another bite: marker 1, D-Sands across from the fort, Hammond, Sawdust Pile, Ship Anchorage. Had another near-spooling in the anchorage, hooking something that might have been a sturgeon (?) before it broke off. No more salmon action, though.

Each of us tagged a fish, so nothing to sniff at! Back at it this weekend.

 

[jagosh]

I don't post much B-10 because I fish much B-10. And don't catch much B-10. I was down there for the last day of the coho rodeo and stayed over to partake in the release fest I've been hearing about.

For those who struggle, don't feel alone. In an eight hour day out there I SAW about as much action as some single individual boats are claiming.

Up with the crowd approaching 10 we were seeing enough action to be confident of getting bit. And a bit frustrated at NOT getting bit. I commented "If we don't get bit I'm going to feel rather inadequate". "Fish on!" It was the strangest "fight" I've ever seen. It ran off about 60' then went dead. No head shakes, no side to side movement. I was convinced we were snagged on a crab rope and hoped we could lift it high enough to salvage some gear off it. Eventually it got to the boat. "It's a fish! A NICE fish!" exclaimed Nephew. Well, it was in nice shape for a Tule, and a coho that size would have been a NICE fish....

A few minutes later we put back a hi fin silver, then a few hours later a couple more hi fin silvers.

Fish checker said most boats were bringing in "One or two".

Would be nice if those limiting by 10:00am after 30 fish would mention they were NOT in the river

 

[ET]

Im going to pull a helmet anchovy behind a small diver tomorrow, no flasher, nothing else just to prove or disprove this can catch fish without all that bling we pull now.

I fish naked all the time! Helmet anchovy behind a weight….that’s it. Some days it works better than anything else. Other rods on the boat have all the gear, my rod is naked. Who caught the biggest salmon last year? Me!

 

[PNWChrome]

Ok been holding out mostly because I've been busy each day but I got a day off today, I started my b10 season Saturday and fished everyday through Tuesday. We have limited each day ,with lots of action. Fishing has been very very good, but it's also been different kind of year so far , typical year I follow the tides as it floods comes in, I go up higher with the fish, this year fish seem to be hanging in the lower river, and not holding up above the bridge (this may change) but my results all come low even at high tide. Saturday killed 5 kings 1 coho , released 9 kings and had numerous misses, Sunday 4 folks we killed 4 kings and 2 coho, released a bunch of stinky fish and missed way more than I want to admit, Monday killed 4 kings 2 coho , Monday quick 4 man limit of kings and released another 6 by 9am... this is shapping up to be a epic season.
Anchovies behind 360s are always on at least a couple of rods (top producers) hoochie spinners doing ok but not great. Old school skinnies are doing great always on a couole of rods , but those new skinny minnies have crushed them last two days.. I chop up anchovies in small pieces and mix with salmon slammer from pro cure its a killer for me. As far as colors spinners pinks and orange with painted blades have been good, stupid baits anything bright wuth pink tips like she and I , twisted sister and rotten banana. I will try and give report daily after I get off water.
And all river fishing.

 

[Hutch]

Would be nice if those limiting by 10:00am after 30 fish would mention they were NOT in the river

🤔Everyone is fishing the river, ocean is closed.